Naked and Afraid - A Bethyl AU
by Bethgreenewarriorprincess
Summary: One man. One woman. The beaches of Bjornak, a tiny island in the South Pacific. Do Daryl and Beth have what it takes to survive the wilds of Bjornak, Naked and Afraid?
1. Chapter 1

**I know, I know, I said I was not going to write Bethyl anymore but then I started watching Naked and Afraid and there was a couple on there that was so much like Bethyl and they had this amazing chemistry and this idea formed and it just would not leave me alone so here we are. For the purpose of this story, I have created the island of Bjornak from an amalgamation of my imagination and several islands in the South Pacific that are similar.**

 **This story idea intrigued me because I thought it would be super interesting to explore this particular dynamic that is very Still-esque while they are also naked and vulnerable. Warning though, this will be a slow burn, aka, they won't be immediately humping in the wild. Lol. Sorry but I have a bigger story to tell, but if you've read my stories before, you know the payoff on the smut will be worth the wait. ;) At least, I hope. Without further adieu I give you Day One of Bethyl Naked and Afraid. This chapter will alternate their points of view and chapters that follow will likely switch back and forth every other chapter.**

* * *

Day Zero – The Day before insertion

Beth Greene considered herself in the mirror of the hotel room they'd put her up in before her insertion day tomorrow. She still couldn't believe she'd been picked. She pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes and tried not to think about how snarled it would be by this time tomorrow.

At a petite 5 foot 3 she could hardly be considered hearty but somehow her 3 minute and 45 second YouTube video had apparently convinced the judges that she was strong enough for this challenge.

She was a tri-athlete and had competed in three triathlons over the past couple of years and the training for it was always extensive. To that end, she had always been able to stay in top form. Add to it that she was a third year medical student and she had been taking survival courses for years and she guessed it made her a perfect candidate. She hoped her partner wouldn't judge too harshly by her appearance and she also tried to clear her mind of her own prejudices before they met tomorrow.

 _Naked._

She swore her heart catapulted out of her chest onto the floor every time she thought about it. She was not a prude. Not by any standards. She'd had sex and plenty of it but she was still self-conscious about her body, especially in front of men who'd never seen her naked before.

Maggie had teased her endlessly about this fact while they were making her video for the judges to decide if she was going to be strong enough to survive Naked and Afraid. They'd had to start over many times because Maggie had insisted on narrating.

"Do Beth and Joshua have what it takes to survive Naked and Afraid?" while making obscene gestures out of the eye of the camera.

"God, Maggie you're so immature. We're both going to be naked. That's kind of the point." She'd huffed as she hoisted her frame over the rock climbing wall, one of the many exercises on the video montage to demonstrate her agility and strength.

Of course they didn't know the name of the person she would be entering the challenge with. That was something the producers of the show kept secret until the moment they met on camera. Maggie had made up at least a dozen names off the top of her head during the course of them filming the video that would convince a panel of judges that Beth has what it makes to make it, all of them more ridiculous .

"You look like hell baby sister. Hope your partner likes the hot and sweaty look." Maggie had laughed and then they both collapsed into giggles having to start the video all over again.

Beth smiled in remembrance of the moment. At the end of the day, by the time they'd shot all the video they'd need for the entry, Beth looked like she'd already survived _something_.

Sighing before the mirror, she dressed for bed and settled down for sleep, hoping it would come. This would be the comfiest night she would have for 21 days.

Damn Merle, anyway, Daryl Dixon thought for the hundredth time since arriving in the South Pacific. He'd made a bet with him, a stupid one at that and since he'd lost, here he was. Because Dixons might be a bunch of nothin', no-good rednecks but they had a code and you just didn't cop out on a bet. No matter if it was something that could send him to his death.

They'd done the video. That was all he'd agreed to. Leave it to Merle to hire some fancy videographer to make him look better on camera than he did in real life. Even if he did have to admit a little that he looked like a badass in the final cut. He guessed that's why the judges had picked him.

He had to admit that he'd balked when it came to the psych evaluation that all contestants were required to undergo before participating in the challenge. He didn't want some head shrinker poking around his brain at things in his past that were better left alone. He'd made his peace with his past.

Merle had been an alcoholic for years and tried to take Daryl down the same path. It had been a bitch but he'd talked Merle into AA and went with him to make sure he complied. He'd found him a sponsor and in working through the 12 steps with Merle, he was slowly able to let go of his past and the shitty childhood they'd both left behind in rural Georgia.

But as it turned out, he had handled himself quite well in the interview and it wasn't nearly as bad as his mind had made it out to be. He was hoping he felt the same way about being naked in front of another person.

It wasn't that he hadn't been around women. It's just that he'd never really been around one for any long period of time. Certainly not camped out with one for 21 days in the wilderness. At least not any that weren't clients and there were usually 5 other clients with him so that really didn't count anyway.

He'd been teaching survival courses in Texas for going on ten years. Merle had started the company when he'd gotten sober and Daryl tagged along and now they were a two person team and they did quite well for themselves, especially for Dixons.

He was 39 years old, owned his own home, a truck and a motorcycle. He didn't live extravagantly and didn't figure he ever would. He was just a simple man living a simple life. Except for now. Now was complicated as hell since he was literally putting himself buck ass naked in the middle of the wilderness with a female he didn't know for 21 days.

All he could hope was he had a worthy partner that would pull her own weight and didn't look like she walked off a runway.

* * *

Day 1 - Insertion Day

 _Video log / Beth Greene/ En route to insertion point._

"I'm really excited to do this challenge. I think I might have something to prove maybe. People look at me and I know what they see. They see a tiny blonde who looks more like a Disney princess than a survivalist." Beth smiles into the camera, talking loud over the din of the motorboat that would carry them to the island. "But I've been taking survival courses for years and I'm a tri-athlete so I think I am a lot tougher than I look. But we'll see. This island poses a lot of risks but I'm ready to face them. I hope my partner is strong and is ready to pull his weight."

The boat stops short and she guesses that's her cue to exit the boat. Without her clothes. She looks into the camera again. "Sorry Daddy." She then explains to the audience while discarding her clothing on the floor of the boat. "My upbringing was pretty religious. My Daddy was a Protestant minister for several years so nudity isn't something I'm all that comfortable with. But I'm here and this is part of the challenge so here goes."

Beth sheds the last piece of clothing she was wearing, her black thongs and stands back up, already feeling the sun beating down on her bare body in this sweltering heat. She was probably going to burn quickly as she was quite fare and knew her SPF 80 moisturizer she'd applied at the hotel was likely worn off after such a long boat ride.

If they happened upon any mud on their travels today, the first thing she was going to do was cover herself in it. The last thing she needed was sun poisoning.

She jumps into the water, thankful for the at least temporary covering of her body, providing her some respite from the perpetual blush she seemed to be sporting naked here in the wild. It was just going to take some getting used to is all, she reminded herself. Her partner would be naked too. Hopefully they could just laugh about it and all would be fine.

The boat guide hands her diary cam and she continues to record the rest of her insertion onto Bjornak. She can already tell that the environment is hostile by the feel of the jagged coral beneath her feet as she made her way onto shore.

* * *

 _Video log/ Daryl Dixon / En route to insertion point._

"I don't know anything about my partner but I know they don't put people in this challenge that they don't think would make it. I've been a survivalist my entire life and most of what I've learned is self taught. Truth is, I entered this challenge as a bet against my brother that I wouldn't get picked and yet here I am." Daryl is speaking to the camera and he isn't sure what he's supposed to say, so he's just talking off the top of his head. This part definitely wasn't his forte. He thought Merle maybe should have entered this challenge; he was a lot more social than Daryl. He decided to be honest with the camera because he figured being naked in the wilderness was about as real as a person could get.

"'M not a very social person. I tend to be kinda quiet." He shrugs and looks away from the camera and then back again. "But I know that won't work out here. That might be the hardest part of this challenge for me. 'M used to doing everythin' on my own. I ain't used to dependin' on anyone, so maybe this place has somethin' to teach me that I haven't learned yet." He doesn't say anything else and the director nods his head as if that might be enough for now and he cues the cameraman to shut off the video recorder.

"That's good, Daryl. You gave us a lot to work with for the final cut. Just keep being honest." The director was a nice woman, in her mid thirties, dark hair that she wore up in this heat, which was already rivaling the hottest day in Texas and Georgia combined, to his memory.

The island of Bjornak was coming into full view and it rose up like a vision on the horizon. He'd researched everything he could on this island before he came. It looked like they were putting in on the North side of the island, which was a rocky embankment that was coral encrusted, whereas the South side was covered in fine white sand.

Figured they'd dump them out on the most rugged part of the island as far as terrain goes. His feet already ached thinking about walking across the craggy coral that was likely already heated from the sun high in the sky. He guessed it to be about 95 degrees but the humidity was almost stifling out here. The boat came to a full stop and the cameraman cued him again.

"I guess this is it." Daryl said and stood up on the deck of the boat, moving his hands to his waistband of his pants, undoing the zipper and letting them fall to his feet. He then proceeded to pull his shirt over his head, leaving him standing there in just his skivvies. He tried not to think about the scars on his back and what anyone might say about them.

He fought the urge to put his shirt back on and hoped that no one asked. He was never prepared for what he could say about the man that put them there.

He slid his thumbs into the hem and let his boxers fall to meet his pants. He guessed he'd get his clothes back at the end of this thing. It was weird to think about entering the wilderness with nothing. But that was exactly what he was standing in when he jumped into the water, feeling his dick slap against his thigh on impact of the water, which was cool but not cold.

He let his body adjust to the water for a minute, taking care to look around him making certain there weren't any dangers hidden in the waters. But the waters surrounding Bjornak Island were a clear cerulean blue that almost matched the same hue in the skies that hung over it. He could see straight to the bottom and there didn't seem to be any sharks or other predators in the water surrounding where the boat was dumping him off.

If nothing else, the place was beautiful. He'd see if he felt the same way after 3 weeks in its wilds.

* * *

Beth carefully took each step, trying to ignore just how badly her feet hurt walking over the jaggedly uneven beach filled with rock. The coral was like walking over hot coals and she had thought she would be prepared for walking barefoot after having spent half her childhood doing so on her family's farm, but the rough and tumble terrain of backwater Georgia didn't have anything on this place, she thought.

She painstakingly made her way up the beach on the North side of the island where she was to meet her partner she'd be spending the next three weeks with and wondered if he was having as much trouble as she was.

It was still weird to her, being out here stark naked with absolutely nothing to cover her. She was suddenly insanely glad for the Brazilian wax she'd gotten upon Maggie's insistence. "You're going _into_ the bush, it doesn't mean you have to _sport_ one." She had nearly spit out her soda at the time as they both dissolved into fits of laughter. She had to admit, it _was_ funny and she would get an I told you so later, but she was really happy to have her sister's guidance on stuff like this, even if it was only to tell her to shave her lady bits before she came out here.

Beth could make out distinct figures ahead. Two of them. One was obviously the part of the production crew that would follow them to where they'd make camp and the other was very clearly her partner. He was carrying a rather large stick and well, he was as naked as she was. As she got closer, she tried to tell herself to keep her eyes trained on his face. And she was doing great with that until she opened her mouth.

They were now standing face to face. Woman to man. With nothing between them but the blazing heat.

"Hi, I'm Beth Greene." She said and extended her hand, looking straight into his crystal blue eyes. "You must be my partner."

He took her hand and shook it. "What gave it away?" His eyes crinkled up in a slight smile at the obvious elephant in the room that no one was mentioning but Beth opened her mouth and inserted her foot before she could stop herself. As usual.

"You were the only one out here with a big stick." She could hear the cameraman chuckling and she couldn't blame him.

God, why couldn't she have just said he was the only other naked person. That would have been so much better. Now she'd just drawn attention to the fact that she had indeed taken a peek at his "package" and it was a very nice, well, it was big. _Dammit._ Her face turned 9 shades of red that had nothing to do with the heat out here. _Why hadn't the ground swallowed her up already?_

"I'm Daryl. Daryl Dixon." She let his name slide around in her mind while he looked straight into her eyes. He laughed good-naturedly while shaking her hand firmly. Her eyes met his again and there was a warmth there she wasn't quite expecting. Feeling her lips curve into a smile, she shrugged and finally laughed too and that was it. The ice was broken. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

They'd been warned of all the dangers. Daryl had looked up a lot of him himself when he found out their destination for the challenge after all the rigorous testing and paperwork had been completed. He had to sign his life on the dotted line in a lot of places and he figured with all the hazards of the island, he may as well be signing his name in blood. The fine print was not even fine, in his opinion. They pretty much had spelled it all out for him in bold letters: The show and its constituents would not be held responsible for any injuries or illnesses, up to and including death.

The dangers were many, the first of which being the dozens of poisonous vipers that lived in the trees of the jungle. But those didn't worry him nearly as much as the Papuan Taipan, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. Add to it that it was an aggressive creature and it pretty much had Daryl with his nerves on end. Give him a good old fashioned timber rattler any day. And that was saying something. They were mean little bastards if provoked.

But the Papuan Taipan was a death adder that was more common to the island of Papua New Guinea and how it had come to be found on Bjornak was unknown but it was there and it was real. A bite from one of them and they could kiss their asses goodbye. He was used to looking out for things like that hiding in brush but he was also used to trekking through the forest fully clothed with the ankles of his pants tied down to keep anything from crawling up his leg that wasn't supposed to be there.

Out here, he was going to be stark naked with nothing to protect him except his senses. He was confident in his abilities as a hunter and trekker but the wild was just that: wild. It was unpredictable and he wasn't so arrogant to think that he was better than mother nature.

As for his partner, she seemed to be carefully stepping through the brush just as he was. They'd talked a bit about snakes and scorpions and it seemed she had done her homework just as well as he had.

She had also brought up the fact that the island was home to the Chinchua tree which looked fairly tame but what a lot of people didn't know was that that sap from the tree was highly poisonous causing burns and swelling to any area of the body it touched.

She was tiny. She was petite and looked about 5 foot 4 but he bet she weighed a buck ten soaking wet. He had watched her cautiously since they'd met and decided to start making their way to the part of the island where they were to make their camp. They had to walk across 3.5 miles of craggy shore before crossing into the rainforest on the South side of the island where it eventually gave way to soft sandy beaches. They were hoping to make camp at the edge of the beach just before the bush got too dense for any real clearings.

She kept up with him just fine so yeah, she was tiny but she seemed capable enough.

She didn't shut up. That was for sure. It wasn't that he minded it. In fact, it was kind of nice. She sort of carried the conversation and he was surprised that he was not annoyed by it. He had just never been around anyone that talked as much as she did.

She had talked for most of their trek except for the couple of times they were both too winded to keep up much of a conversation. It was getting more and more obvious that their first concern was going to be water. They were surrounded by ocean on all sides but with no filtration system, that water was definitely out. Their best bet would be to find a small stream or waterfall within the rain forest. Of course, going into the jungle meant having to constantly be on alert for predators. The rainforest was also home to a small group of puma. Fierce hunters, they could take down a human half his size. Like his partner.

He'd learned on their journey so far that she was an adventurist and was relieved to hear that she had taken several survival courses. She was not, so far, boasting of any of her skills, but she was a capable hiker and climber from what he'd observed so far. And for her small stature, she could cover just as much ground as him with seemingly little effort.

He accounted that to her experience as a marathon runner. She'd told him she won third place in a triathlon in her county last year.

Still, she resembled what he'd feared most: A runway model for a partner. Not that he was checking her out. That wasn't what Daryl was about and never had been. She was cute, he guessed.

Okay, so she was more than cute. She was very pretty. She had that sort of rare earthly beauty. From what he could tell she wore no make-up, which only seemed to accentuate her luminous blue eyes that lit up her whole face when she smiled. Which was often. To be out here in the brush, she was surprisingly cheerful. He wondered if she would be this chipper this time tomorrow.

He gave her kudos for her one item she'd brought for survival, a machete. He'd thought long and hard before he'd chosen his bow-drill. He'd wanted to bring his bow and arrow but he was told that it wasn't allowed. So he'd settled on his bow-drill for fire-making purposes and set his mind on making his own bow and arrow for hunting once they'd set up camp. He was very good at primitive survival and it was all self-taught growing up like he did.

More often than not, they'd had to live off the land since their old man usually gambled away any money they might have for groceries. So for as long as Daryl could remember, he or Merle used any means necessary to put food on the table and that often included wild game. Squirrel, deer, snake, rabbit; pretty much anything was literally fair game. He was hoping to put those skills to good use out here.

"How are you with meat?" Daryl asked. He wanted to know if she was one of those fancy vegan types that wouldn't eat anything with a face on it. That would be about his luck.

But Beth just smiled in his direction as they trudged through the thick jungle, her hacking away branches with her machete for a clearer path. They had been taking turns with that so neither one got too tired out. "I grew up on a farm. And my Daddy taught me and my brother and sister how to clean our own kills."

His eyebrows shot up at the last part and she laughed. Her laughter was never really expected and it just sort of bubbled up out of her like she couldn't help herself. He liked that about her, he decided.

"I'm pretty good with huntin'." He doesn't say anything more than that and leaves it at that. He can back his statement up by killing them a snake or lizard for supper come nightfall, he hopes anyway.

* * *

Beth speaks into her diary cam quietly. "My partner had to answer nature's call." She laughs at herself and then shrugs. "He had to pee, okay. Sorry Mama." She looks straight into the camera but she's going to be out here naked for three weeks and she could hardly act prim and proper covered in grime. Besides, it was closer to who she was anyway and if you couldn't be your real self out here in the wild, then where could you be?

They were still making their way through the forest and so far had seen about twenty different species of snakes, most of them pit vipers. So far they hadn't seen any signs of the dreaded Taipan. They hadn't talked about it yet, but days before their insertion, the crew was scouting the island and one of the cameraman had been bitten by the Papuan Taipan. He was rushed to a hospital, the closest one being 100 miles away.

After being taken out by helicopter he was taken to the nearest hospital 100 miles away and underwent immediate treatment. Thankfully they were able to save his foot where he'd been bitten, but he was still undergoing daily surgeries to remove necrotic (dead) tissue from his foot and Beth knew from experience that he had to be dealing with a considerable amount of pain.

In her first year as a medical student, she'd been involved in an incoming snakebite trauma during her rotation at Grady Memorial. The girl had been no more than 11 and they'd all thought she was a goner. A timber rattler had cornered her and she'd been struck several times on the arms, legs and torso. When she'd come in, she'd been near death but had pulled through.

Beth shuddered at the memory, glancing around her as she talked into the camera. "One of our cameramen was bitten by a Papuan Taipan a few days before Daryl and I came out here. We were given the choice to opt out of the challenge but we both decided to go ahead with our plans. We knew the dangers when we came but I can't help but wonder where any of those snakes might be hiding. They literally could be anywhere. Our camera guy was fully clothed and stepped on one hidden in a pile of leaves."

It was a sobering thought to realize that they could literally be seconds away from death from any one of the dangers out here. The first thing they were going to need to do was find water. "We're going to have to find water soon. We're burning a lot of calories out here and we risk dehydration if we don't get water in us pretty soon."

She shut the camera off and raked her hair back out of her face for the hundredth time and wishing she'd listened to Maggie and gotten it trimmed before coming out here. Her hair had a mind of its own and in its untamed state, it was currently a mess of curls and frizz. But her hair was sort of her signature feature and she was always reluctant to cut it any shorter than it was now, which was midway down her back.

Her partner came back around the side of the bushes where he'd gone to relieve himself and she handed him her camera to take her turn. "I am still getting used to using the diary cam. I am trying to get in the habit of recording something every stop, otherwise, I'll just end up turning it back in empty at the end of the three weeks."

Her partner didn't say anything to that. Just nodded. "Keep a watch out for snakes. I thought I saw one dart behind the rocks in behind those bushes."

She smiled her thanks to him. "Be right back."

Beth walked carefully around the bushes, making sure every step she took was clear and calculated and free of any dangers. Twice she stepped on the prickly brambles that were sticking up out of the ground at odd angles from whatever mudslide had happened here in the last few weeks. The mud was now caked and dried but the debris remained and it was not easy on the feet and as such she had to stop every few minutes to pull bits of thistle from the bottom of her feet so it wouldn't pierce her skin. She already felt like she'd worn off the top layer of skin on the bottoms of her feet.

Stepping clear of the big boulders, she crouched behind the bush and took care of business. It was so odd not having to worry about pants or panties and just being able to crouch down and go. She prayed while she was going that there were no spiders or other critters down there. It made her nervous thinking about going to sleep tonight so unprotected and she thought ahead to the shelter they were going to have to try to construct before nightfall, which was really only hours away.

Had it really already been relatively six hours since their insertion and they weren't even to their camp yet. Beth sighed with exhaustion and stood back up after taking care of business, taking the same steps she took on the way in, just as carefully.

She knew she looked small and incapable so she felt she had more of something to prove than maybe her partner did and she would be darned if she would get taken down in the first day because of one careless misstep in the jungle.

"Careful." Daryl reminded her again as she stepped back into view and he had one hand held up. She stopped walking immediately, sensing that his tone was a warning that danger was near. She looked in his line of sight and followed it down to where he was watching a pit viper sunning itself on a rock. She stood absolutely stock-still as it wasn't even 50 feet away from her.

Daryl was even closer to it than that and he already had the machete in the air ready to wield the blow that would sever the snake's head from its body. It was over before she could even blink, the snake's mouth open in a strike that would never land, its head dropping to the jungle floor while its body remained twitching on the rock.

"Holy crap, that's a big snake." Beth remarked. "Good catch."

"Dinner." His voice was gruff, she noted, not for the first time. It was sort of gravelly and not together unpleasant, she decided. She beamed at him.

"Shall we continue?"

He picked up the snake and dropped it into his satchel and motioned for her to lead the way.

* * *

It wasn't her fault that they got lost. She thought she knew the way and since he was following her so diligently, she had assumed that she must be going the right way, otherwise why would he let her lead them. But then it seemed that they got right back where they had started with the snake and when they saw the blood on the rock, they knew they'd just gone in a full circle for the last hour.

"I'm sorry." Beth muttered. Her partner was not saying anything and she guessed he was mad at her. Which, she guessed she deserved it. She should have been paying better attention to where the sun was overhead.

As he turned around to survey their surroundings, she got a glimpse of what she'd seen earlier a couple of times and had trained her eyes to not focus on them for too long. His back was a patchwork of long silvery scars. Her heart had pained in her chest at the time and it did again now as she considered what they were.

She was a medical student and as such, she'd seen more than her fair share of child abuse cases. The scars that marked her partner's back were consistent with those and she wondered at his gruff nature and if that was what made him the way he was and she couldn't blame him.

She was not going to ask, but maybe he would tell her about them. She doubted it though. Because right now, he looked madder than a hornet and for the first time since deciding to enter this challenge, Beth felt like she'd maybe made a mistake.

Her partner wasn't speaking to her and didn't say anything of her apology to them getting lost and now she just felt like crying.

* * *

Daryl knew exactly why they were lost. He had let her take the lead and he literally had no one to blame but himself because though he'd tracked in a dozen different conditions on dozens of terrains, he'd never had to do it naked and damn it all to hell, he had never had to do it with a naked companion.

It was-. It was _distracting_ , he finally settled on that word, not really liking any of the other thoughts he had in his brain.

They were lost because in following her and getting caught up with her chatter, he also had been caught up in checking her out.

He felt like the worst kind of pervert for doing so and it wasn't like he hadn't been around naked females before. He had. Just none quite this pretty. And young. She said she was 26, but she didn't look a day over 18 and he could just hear Merle in the back of his head.

Merle.

If Merle could see him now, he'd be laughing his damn ass off. He then reminded himself that Merle would see all of this eventually and would be laughing his ass off. Darylina Dixon, traipsing around some jungle with a girl half his age and checking out her ass is going to be the thing that gets them both killed. They could have wandered into a den of puma and he probably wouldn't have noticed until they were already half eaten since all his brain seemed to be able to focus on for the past hour was the curve of her backside as she climbed up one hill or another.

She had been humming too. They were tracking through miles of jungle, through the brush, beating off mosquitoes and picking brambles out of their bare feet and the girl was damn near singing. So when they got lost and she turned to look to him, the apology in her eyes, he knew he shouldn't have but he opened his damn mouth anyway.

"If you'd been paying attention to the signs instead of singing, we might not be an hour out of our way." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. It wasn't fair and he knew he was the worst kind of ass for saying what he did. But what's done was done.

"Lead the way, then, Mr. Dixon." Her lips were pressed into a thin tight smile, nothing like the one she'd greeted him with earlier in the day.

She wasn't singing anymore. She wasn't smiling. In fact, he bet if he turned around she'd turn him to stone with the death stare she was sending straight between his shoulder blades.

Hell with it anyway. He'd told Merle he shouldn't come, but it was too late now. He just had to suck it up and get through the next 21 days. Hopefully with both of them alive.

* * *

Fucked. Everything was fucked and he'd said it more than once and his partner had tried to remain cheerful but in the face of what they'd just encountered, he could tell that even her positive resolve was slipping. This place would make a preacher want to cuss as his mama used to say, God rest her soul.

He just hoped Merle was happy when they shipped him back in a body bag.

He took account of their current situation. He had managed to make good on his boasts of hunting prowess and had bagged them a snake, a pit viper but as yet they had not been able to make a fire so they probably wouldn't be able to eat the damn thing.

It had also started raining just before they'd arrived at the opposite side of the island. This part of the island as far as he could tell was most ideal for setting up camp. They'd stopped at a small stream on the way in and had toted some water with them in some coconuts they'd found but since it was raining, they'd as yet been unable to get a fire started.

Beth was making herself busy gathering palm fronds to begin construction on their shelter and he was still working on the fire, the sawing motion of the bow-drill already putting blisters on his fingers but trying to get anything to catch a spark in this messy drizzle and sticky humid God-forsaken jungle seemed beyond hope.

He caught her watching him out of the corner of his eye a couple times, as if she was praying for him to get it started. He wasn't a praying man and never had been, but maybe it was time to start. The sound of wood grinding on wood was grating in his ears at this point since it was doing nothing but wearing through the base. The smell of the friction of the wood rubbing together was just taunting him that a spark would start just any minute now if only he kept sawing.

"I'm gonna go see if I can find something to help out." Beth called out and he nodded in her direction, not wanting to break his concentration on what he was doing. He took note of her intended direction and saw that she was heading back into the jungle. He didn't call out for her to be careful. She had made it clear that she could take care of herself.

Six hours in and they'd had their first disagreement. It wasn't her fault that they'd gotten lost but he'd made sure to blame her and he felt like an ass for doing it. But it was like he couldn't help himself. Something about her unnerved him.

Once they'd found their way back on the right path eventually, they'd found a stream. They badly needed drinking water. As it was, they were both wobbly on their feet with no nourishment and no water.

"Do you think we can just drink it?" Beth inquired.

He'd just shook his head. It was too risky. There weren't enough rocks and pumice in the bed the stream was flowing through to provide any good sort of filtration system so they'd have to boil it to make it safe to drink.

He'd told her to be careful and then she'd gone and fallen in the water and he could tell it bruised her pride more than anything else and she'd gotten up, seemingly like the fall had never happened in the first place, though her body was covered in water from head to toe and her hair was dripping in her face. He couldn't help it then. "Told ya to be careful, girl." He didn't mean it as a slight to her capability but they were tired already and both of them cranky and on edge and that's just the way it came across. He wanted to reel the words back in as soon as he said them but it was too late. He thought again of his social ineptitude and how this challenge was going against the grain of his very nature. He was pretty much a lone wolf.

Then she had looked at him as if she could shoot daggers from her eyes. "I can take care of myself."

He was not going to argue with her. So he just shrugged and that seemed to make her even madder and she'd stormed off. Now she's gone off again and he can't but think she doesn't want to be around him and who could blame her. He hasn't exactly been nice to her today.

She's gone awhile. He has an idea to hollow out the bark of a nearby fallen tree and to scrape out the tinder from inside it. He busies himself with that for a bit.

Then he remembers he's supposed to be recording something on his diary cam every few minutes and he's not touched the damn thing since they'd crossed the island.

"We're still trying to get a fire started." He points to the area of the copse of trees where he and Beth have decided to set up camp just inside the jungle, on the far side of the dunes where the beach started. They hoped to be able to keep the winds that might come off from any tropical weather at their backs, or rather the back of their shelter. They'd built a base sawing limbs from nearby bamboo trees and stringing them together with cordage Beth made from some long grass she'd found. It was good binding material and she'd remarked that they'd have many uses for it.

"This here is the start of our shelter. We had to stop to see if we could get fire started before it really started raining hard, but so far it ain't happened." He shuts off the diary cam and knows that the cameraman standing nearby will fill in the rest later.

He then goes back to sawing, hoping the scraps of tinder he was able to collect from within the fallen tree are dry enough to catch a spark.

* * *

Beth pulls out her diary cam, ready to rip her partner a new one. "Jerk." She says into the camera. He'll see this later but at the moment she doesn't care. She's so angry. He'd said practically nothing to her on their hike on the way in and she'd felt like she had to carry the whole conversation. At first it was okay but then more and more she realized that she was doing all the talking and he was doing little to contribute to the conversation.

He'd told her he was a hunter and that he lived in Texas and made a living teaching extreme survival courses to business executives and that was pretty much all she knew. He'd mentioned a brother briefly in talking about what had driven him to enter the challenge and it was clear that he saw her as just another dumb blonde whose weight he'd have to carry. She was going to prove him wrong.

When he'd made the jab about her singing getting them lost, it had stung a bit but it hadn't really hurt her feelings. It had irritated her more than anything else.

When she'd fallen in the creek, she was mad but not at him. At least not at first. It wasn't until he'd called her "girl" that she'd really snapped. He may as well have called her half-pint. Or kiddo. It was just as insulting. She knew she didn't look like much, but dammit she was strong.

She thought of all she'd overcome and spoke into the camera. "I know that people look at me and probably just see another dead girl. A girl who won't make it through this challenge and will tap out on day 3 because she's not strong enough." She looks away from the camera for a minute, recalling the times in her life when she wasn't strong and willing herself not to cry.

When her mama died. She fingers the scar on her wrist that she can't cover out here. She truly thinks she knows now why they call this show "Naked and Afraid." She speaks into the camera again. "But I am strong and I'm going to prove it." She shuts off the camera and figures that's enough. She cringes that she called him a jerk. Not that he didn't deserve it. He _was_ being a jerk.

The mood between them was tense so when he dropped his fifth F bomb in five minutes, she decided to see if she could find something that might help. She tucked the camera in her bag and went foraging. At first, it was nothing but the same misty wet jungle she'd just left and then as she walked a little further, taking each step carefully, sidestepping a lizard that skittered off just as scared of her as she was of it. She contemplated going after it and killing it but they already had a snake they couldn't eat yet. No sense in adding insult to injury.

Gradually, the jungle grew denser and as such, the canopy overhanging was a good cover from the misty rains that had started falling a couple of hours ago. Beth swept her wet hair back off her face, breathing a sigh of relief that it was relatively dry here. She scavenged for a few minutes around a fallen log, poking with her machete, careful of any lurking predators and found what she was looking for. She nearly clapped with delight. Tucked into a bush was an abandoned bird's nest. It was dry and thus, she knew it would be good for tinder. The next part would be easy.

Taking the machete, she chopped off a good sizeable piece of the log she'd found in front of the bush and went in search of the right tree. It would be harder to find cone-bearing trees in a jungle but she knew of a few and looked for the right signs on the ground that would lead her to the right tree, careful to keep her bearings so she wouldn't get lost. She made small carvings in the trees she passed so she would know which way to go when she turned back. It was a little trick she had learned in one of her survival courses and it worked as well as anything else since she didn't have access to a compass out here in the wild. She wished she'd thought to use it earlier before her and Daryl got lost.

Beth almost laughed when she finally found it. It was a small and a much younger tree than she would have liked, but it was producing cones so that had to mean it produced sap as well. She sawed into it with the machete midway up the trunk of the tree, finding what she was looking for. Thick pitch. She used the piece of log she'd chopped off and the machete as a knife, she scraped off a glob of the pitch onto the wood to carry back with her to camp.

She tried to keep the smile from her face as she made her way back into camp and caught Daryl's eye. He was sitting by his bow-drill, crouched down, his body covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

Good lord, it wasn't like she hadn't noticed it before but he was damn good looking even if he was surly and withdrawn. Daryl looked her way and she held up her spoils. "Maybe this will help."

She smiled softly in his direction. It was a peace offering that she hoped he would take and not take it as some sign that she doubted his abilities. She couldn't be sure but she thought she saw the corners of his mouth twitch in an almost smile. "That'll do. Good work, Greene." She was pleased that he was using her last name for some reason. If anything, it was better than "girl" or "kiddo", so she'd take it. Besides, it made her sound tough and she liked that for sure.

He took the bird's nest from her and placed it at the base of the bow-drill and then Beth took the pitch and rubbed it lightly over it. Daryl took a deep breath and began sawing while Beth reached down and helped hold the spindle.

With a two-person effort, and it seemed to be working. There was actual smoke coming from the base of the bow-drill now and that hadn't happened yet. Still, Beth held her breath, hoping and trying not to get her hopes up too high but they really needed this fire tonight.

"Almost." She whispered small words of encouragement. "You got this." She wasn't sure if Daryl could hear her or not. He was so intent on getting the fire to start, his jaw was set in a hard line and his brow was furrowed. She tried so hard not to notice how his arm muscles bulged with each motion but it was impossible not to see how his shoulders stretched with the effort his hands were making.

 _Good Lord, Beth, get a grip,_ she told herself. She was out here in the wild to prove she could survive, not prove she could catch some guy that probably wouldn't be interested in her in a million years anyway. Even if he did find her passably attractive, it would hardly be appropriate to start some on screen show-mance with him.

She wondered idly if he had a girlfriend and decided that he was probably one of those confirmed bachelor types. Still, he didn't strike her as the type that was a player either.

Sighing to herself, she concentrated on the task at hand which was holding the spindle as steady as she could while Daryl continued his sawing motions then, the screech of the board against the wooden base nearly deafening at this point and then it sparked and an ember formed to the tiny bit of birds nest covered in pitch and then flames shot up from that.

Barely daring to breathe, Beth fed the fire slowly with tiny bits of tree limbs they'd gathered while Daryl went and fetched the firewood they'd managed to find before it started raining too hard. Within a minute, they had a blazing fire.

She looked at Daryl across the fire and she couldn't be absolutely sure, but she thought she saw him smile.

"We have fire!" She exclaimed and ran over to him before she could stop herself, lifting her hand in the air, time suspending on itself for a minute as she wondered if he was going to leave her hanging. But then, finally with a definite upturn of his lips and a flash of teeth, he smiled at her and hefted his hand in the air, meeting hers in a high five, their fingers colliding together on the impact.

"Couldn't have done it without ya." It was honestly the best thing he could have said. She smiled at him a little shyly, their newfound camaraderie something she wanted to hold onto.

But then he was smiling back too and that's when she knew everything was going to be okay between them. "Let's get busy on the shelter. Full on dark is only about two hours away."

And with that, they turned to finish constructing the shelter they would live in for the next 21 days. It was going to be a long three weeks, but Beth couldn't imagine having a better partner for the challenge. She could only hope that after their current boost in morale, that Daryl felt the same way about her.

* * *

 **Well that concludes MOST of Day 1. There's a small bit left that I will get to in the next chapter but I had to cut this one for length and I figured this was a really good place to leave them. I hope you guys enjoyed and please be loves and leave a review on your way out. Thank you for reading! Xoxoxo**


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh my gosh you guys! I am blown away by the response at this story. Thank you so much for all the favorites, follows, bookmarks, comments and reviews. You guys are so awesome to be so supportive of this brand new story. I am SO inspired to write this and I could hardly wait to get this chapter out.**

 **If all continues to go well, I expect to update this story weekly, probably on Fridays or Saturdays. Though it does not appear that much happens in this chapter, remember that this is a slow burn. So they are just getting to know one another.**

 **I will have to say this and I probably will say this often, but it is so HARD to write them naked and not doing anything! This is my biggest challenge. Which may be kind of the point. It's their hardest part of the challenge too, as you'll see in this chapter. Hope you like it! Thank you for reading**

* * *

Chapter 2

" _You're the only one, please lead me out of the dark."_ \- Lead me Out of the Dark, Crown the Empire

It's quiet in the jungle at night and at the same time it is deafening. There are the sounds of a thousand tree frogs chirping their night songs at the moon. There is the occasional rustling of the leaves around their camp and Beth can't help but wonder what all is lurking out there in the darkness.

And that's perhaps the starkest part of this night. Night is absolutely pitch black on Bjornak. They had not yet ventured beyond their camp to the beach but they can hear it over the dunes just beyond where they'd constructed their shelter.

It is altogether peaceful and yet not because while it is calm and quiet, there is also the buzz of a million mosquitoes and Beth wished for the tenth time that she had mosquito netting or at least thicker skin. Her partner did not seem bothered by the blood sucking insects in the least while she was left to swat and slap at her skin.

She drags the camera from her bag that is still slung across her chest. She and Daryl have made camp, their shelter a bit shoddy looking but for something they'd only had less than 3 hours to construct, it didn't look half bad. They'd built their bed up on a platform which consisted of bamboo tied tightly together into something that resembled a raft built by Huck Finn to Beth, but it passably served as a half way decent bed.

Beth had woven together a mat to lie on top of it with palm fronds and it wasn't half bad. More importantly, it got them off the ground from any creepy crawlies that might wander through their camp in the night. Beth would just as soon keep as many creatures off of her naked body as possible.

She turned on the camera, not really looking at her partner. He'd been quiet most of the night. They'd eaten their snake in front of the fire and the misty rain had finally died down so it didn't seem they'd have to worry about a leaky shelter. At least, not for tonight. He wasn't saying much and she wasn't either but everything was oddly calm between them.

Maybe Beth was crazy, but she thought she saw him staring at her a couple of times over the fire as they ate their snake as if he couldn't quite figure her out and she wondered what he saw when he looked at her. Did he see a girl out here on a whim? Or did he see a capable partner in her? She really hoped it was the latter.

She turns the camera into the on position before flipping it around to face them. "Here we are in our shelter for the night. We were able to get fire so we got water and that feels pretty good." She turns the camera to Daryl slightly and he looks into it. His eyes flash darkly in the viewfinder of the camera and it takes her breath for a minute. "Hey." He says into the camera then without her prompting him to say anything.

"Greene did good with getting the fire started. Then we were able to cook our snake to perfection."

"Oh, come on. It was snake jerky." Beth laughed from beside him and noted in the viewfinder how very close their heads were lying together on their shared bed.

She saw his lips twitch upwards at her mention of the snake they'd eaten. It wasn't cooked to perfection at all. They'd nearly made the same mistake as many other patrons of this challenge and overcooked their first meal in an attempt to burn out any bacteria. It was a bit tough, but still edible.

She'd laughingly called it snake jerky half way through their meal as they both worked to chew the bites and swallow them. Daryl had huffed out a bit of laughter and she'd felt such immense relief. All the tension was broken between them by then, but having him laugh at her lame joke attempt felt really good.

It was odd to her that she was lying down in a shelter in the jungle with a man she didn't know and they were both naked, yet not touching one another. That was the part that was almost surreal and she wondered at what point this was going to become second nature to her.

Because so far there wasn't anything natural about lying next to this man. At least, her heart thundering in her ears didn't agree with that assessment. He was just so large; he seemed to take up all the space in their tent at once. Yet no part of his body was touching hers. It was disconcerting to say the least.

"Time to go to sleep." She said into the camera and shut it off. She knew that there were other cameras in the vicinity that would record their camp activity from afar so the production crew could keep an eye on things from where they were across the island. They'd made camp on the other side from what she understood and though Daryl and Beth were accompanied by someone for the most part during the day, at night, they were completely alone at their camp.

That obviously left them vulnerable to anything in the jungle but that was also the point of this challenge. To see if they could survive, naked and afraid.

Beth wasn't exactly afraid as she went to sleep that night. She felt reasonably safe in their shelter and she felt certain her partner was capable of helping defend them both should the need arise. But as she closed her eyes, she wished more than anything for her quilt from her bed back home. She had never felt so naked in her entire life.

* * *

Day 2 / Video log / Daryl Dixon

"Didn't get much sleep last night. Beth was bothered by the mosquitoes so she tossed and turned a lot. It's not her fault." He's quick to add that last part. He knows how it is going to look on camera, him blaming her for them getting lost and he doesn't want to add to his already sullied image as the asshole of the partnership for this challenge.

"I've been a lot of places in my day and camped out in a lot of wild areas, but this place is somethin' else." He talks into the camera. "We heard a lot of rustling around our campsite last night but we didn't see anything. It is strange being out here in the middle of nowhere with nothing and no one in the middle of the night in case somethin' happens. But that's what we're here for."

Beth has gone off to go take care of morning business and when she gets back they are going to venture down to the beach together to clean up. They are both covered in grime from yesterday and his partner is now covered in mosquito bites and the salt water from the ocean could only help soothe the irritation it was bound to be causing her.

She was so pale, her skin a milky white and the bites really stood out on her. She seemed to be taking it all in stride though and was humming to herself as she walked away from camp. She always seemed to be humming something or other.

His mind flashed to when he'd opened his mouth and practically made fun of her singing and he cringed inwardly at the memory. He supposed he could be a bit nicer to her; it wouldn't kill him.

She seemed to just be a happy person and it wasn't her fault that she got stuck with a grouchy asshole like him. No sense in taking it out on her because it's not her fault he's out here. No. He could blame that solely on Merle and he had some choice words for him when he got back. As far as he was concerned, Merle owed him big time for this.

"It's already hotter than July in Georgia out there." Beth said as she entered their shelter again, flopping herself back on the bed beside him.

"That's where I'm from." Daryl spoke from beside her and she sat back up and looked at him like he'd grown horns out of his head. He would have thought his accent would have given away the fact that he hailed from the deep south.

"Me too!" She exclaimed, her smile widening. "What part? I'm from this tiny town in King County, Blossom, Georgia. It's barely a dot on the map." She brushes her hair out of her eyes and he wonders how she can stand it with all that hair piled on her head and hanging about her shoulders. It was so long it nearly covered her breasts. Nearly. She had didn't have much in the tits department. Merle would call it barely more than a handful, but that was okay. Daryl had never been a breast man anyway. Not that he was looking. Because he certainly tried to keep his eyes north of her chest area.

"It's in the way southern part of the state, Juniper. It's not a dot on the map either." It was true too. When Daryl and Merle left, it reduced their population of two less Dixons in their 150 person population. And the way he figured it; they were probably glad to be rid of them.

The Dixon name didn't exactly bring up warm and fuzzy memories for people that knew them and their story. The man named Will Dixon lived on in infamy as the town drunk and pretty much good for nothing except gambling his money away down at Joe's Bar and having the cops called on him nightly.

"Oh I almost forgot." She leans over out of the shelter and pulls something long and leafy in after her. "It's a Cassava plant. I can make us soap out of the roots so we can really get clean. Plus I think it will be good for my bug bites." Her cheeks fire up in a blush as she scratches behind her and he pretends not to notice.

He can't help but be impressed with her resolve to make it as close to home out here as possible. So far, he thought they were doing pretty well. Only day one and they were already talking about bathing, like they were on any other camping trip. Except they weren't. When she deposited the plant back onto the floor outside the shelter, he tried to look away but he wasn't fast enough. He wondered when he would get used to having up close and personal views of her backside every five seconds. That was probably the strangest part of all of this.

The night before, he had done the best he could to keep himself on his own side of their very small bed, but it was cramped and sometime in the night they ended up pressed against one another. It had been awkward this morning to say the least. And he'd expected it on some level. But at the same time he was not prepared for how it would make him feel. Sleepless and restless, that was for sure.

And hard. He wasn't soon going to forget that part.

That had been the worst part of his morning. He'd pretty much bolted from the shelter as soon as his eyes were open and realizing that he had morning wood. He'd told himself at the time that it was just a natural physical response and it happened sometimes upon awakening.

But it had never happened upon awakening with a female beside him. For all his sexual prowess (which was not a whole fucking lot compared to Merle especially) he was fairly inexperienced with women. Usually his sexual exploits consisted of a drunken fumbling in the dark while he got his rocks off on some random woman Merle had set him up with. It was always fast because he usually just wanted to get it over with and he was always gone before morning.

He'd not even had sex with this girl here and he was waking up sporting a painfully hard erection with her pressed to his backside like she was his second skin.

He wondered what she thought of him scrambling from the shelter this morning. If she knew, she was not letting on and for that he was grateful. If he was lucky, she thought he just really had to take a piss.

He looks at her now, lying back against the mat she'd made for them and their eyes meet. He never knows what to say to her when this happens so he just looks away again. "What made you move out of Georgia?" Her voice is soft and plaintive, as if she is afraid to ask the question. And he doesn't intend to answer it.

But then he looks at her again and she has the barest hint of a smile on her face and her eyes are lit up with that smile, like she just can't help but be a beacon of sunlight in this dim jungle. He wonders where the thought has come from even as he opens his mouth and it all comes tumbling out. "My old man was a mean drunk. My brother, Merle and I bore the brunt of it along with our Ma. After our Ma died and our Pa drank himself to death, Merle got in trouble with the law and was gone for a while. When he came back, he was teaching survival courses to executives in Lubbock, Texas. He was so busy, he needed a partner and I went with him. Never looked back. That was ten years ago." As he spoke, he realized that ten years ago she was still in high school and Daryl was trying to get his life together as a 29 year old man with not even a pot to piss in.

Now everything was different; he was a full partner in the business of Dixon Brothers Survivalists, Inc. and he was doing pretty well for himself. He looked at Georgia as a whole different part of his life. A part he'd rather forget and yet here he was, spilling out his secrets to this girl like she was Dear Abby.

Yet, he couldn't fault her. He'd told her willingly. As if he'd known she wouldn't judge him. "I'm sorry that happened to you. You and your brother deserved better than that." She says simply and it's enough and he wonders how she knows the exact right thing to say.

But he just nods at her and shrugs. "We best get a crack on this day. Daylight is wastin'." She smiles in agreement and sits up and slips out of the shelter to make her root soap.

He watches her from the corner of his eye as she works at stripping the fronds of leaves from the base of the plant, slowly but surely revealing the long tuber-shaped root. He busies himself with sharpening his long stick into a point for spearing. He's hoping to catch some fish while they are down at the beach.

As he finishes sharpening it he looks over to see that she has the root all ready for prep.

Her method seems practiced and careful as she takes the machete and chops the root into smaller pieces and takes a rock and starts grinding it against a large flat stone she'd found. They'd used it last night for their snake jerky and she is using what leftover fat is built up on the rock and mashing it together with the root fibers which are a milky white substance. She then adds a bit of water to it and works at it with her fingers until a thick paste forms.

She looks up at him with pride with the concoction in her hand as she scoops it into a coconut shell. "Where'd you learn to do that?" He asks and she looks up at him, a little bit of mirth in her eyes as she replies.

"YouTube." She laughs before continuing "I tried it out on yucca back home and it worked great but this Cassava plant is way better. Now we have soap. Nice spear." She points to the stick in his hand.

"Nice soap." It's an even exchange of compliments to their contributions to their day. They are equals and it isn't forced or unnatural. Suddenly that's what strikes him about her. She is just so down to earth that he feels like himself around her.

Which is decidedly weird, since Daryl doesn't recall a time in his life when he ever really considered who he was as a person. But with her, he thinks maybe he's more relaxed than he's been in years. He tries not to think too much about what that means.

* * *

Beth can't believe how beautiful it is out here. It's hard to believe it's a deadly island full of dangerous predators when she's standing out here amidst all this gorgeous scenery. Beautiful blue skies meshed flawlessly with the cerulean blue sea that stretched for as far as her eyes could see.

The sand at her feet was soft, but hot. She practically had to run to the waves, ever aware of her nudity as she did so since it didn't look like her partner was having as much trouble walking across the hot sand as she was. It was barely midmorning and already the sand was scorching hot.

Once she reached the water, she waded in slowly, looking about for any stingrays or crabs that might not be too happy with her parading through their habitat. Oh, but the water felt delicious on her skin. They couldn't stay out here long though. She'd burn to a crisp in no time in this sun.

She turns around, letting the water splash on the backs of her calves as she faces her partner coming to meet her down at the water. She still has the coconut shell and she reluctantly takes her satchel off where it has rested across her body since they arrived on the island and tosses it into the sand. Without it she feels as naked as she truly is but Daryl isn't looking at her body.

She is grateful for how gentlemanly he continues to behave, never staring for any length of time or ogling her. That had been the part she had been most worried about if she were truthful. That someone would judge her for the way she looks. She knows she has a modest girlish figure, her breasts small and her hips narrow. She can't help that. Her mother had been a petite person and she took after her whereas Maggie had gotten their father's athletic build.

"The water feels great." It's cool, but not too cold and it feels like Heaven on her bug-bitten skin. She takes a bit of the soap concoction and rubs it into her arms, sitting down in the water as it laps around her. She is careful to keep the coconut shell full of the soap out of the water.

She takes another generous dollop and hands the shell to her partner who is watching her with rapt interest. Her cheeks fire up in a blush.

"Looks like it works great. Never used primitive soap before." He says, scooping a heaping amount of it into his palm and rubbing it on his skin.

Beth feels her mouth go dry at watching him massage the soap into his arms, his hands gliding up over his biceps and she tries not to think too much about how slick and warm his arms might feel under her hands.

She blushes even further and turns away slightly so she can take care of bathing herself. There is something so intimate about bathing with a total stranger in the wilderness. It probably doesn't get any more primitive than this and not for the first time, Beth feels a little like Eve in the Garden of Eden.

As she sinks down further into the water, it washes cool and clean over her mosquito bitten skin and she has to fight back a moan as she rubs the soap across her backside. That's probably the area that is most affected by the bites and she hates to think what it must look like being covered in red bumps all over her ass. The combination of the saltwater and the Cassava plant is like heaven and she does moan then.

"This feels so good I don't think I want to leave the ocean today." She says slightly dreamily as she turns back to her partner who is still scrubbing himself up. He cleans up really nice and she notes not for the first time how handsome he is. And with the water sluicing over his toned and tan body in the sun, he looks something like a god out of one of her favorite mythology stories.

He was dark and brooding and she decided if there was an earthly incarnation of Hades, Daryl Dixon fit the bill. She tried not to get carried away with her daydream but it was sort of fitting they were stuck here together on this hot island.

"I'm gonna see if I can catch us somethin'." He says and with a final glance at her over his shoulder he walks further into the surf and she watches him go, pointing his spear in the direction he is walking.

Poseidon, she decides. He's Poseidon, God of the sea. That's exactly what he looks like 10 minutes later as he comes back with three speared fish in his bag and a very satisfied look on his face.

They would be eating fish for lunch today. She could already feel her stomach growling.

* * *

It's dusk and they are sitting by the fire again. It's been a pretty good day. They have just finished the last bit of the fish he'd caught that morning. This time it was not overdone and it practically fell apart in their fingers as they ate.

"Just like camping." Beth says happily. "If only we had some s'mores." A soft sigh slips from her lips as she envisions gooey chocolate and charred marshmallow fluff draped over a graham cracker.

"Never had 'em." His voice is gruff as he regards her for a minute as if she'll somehow challenge what he's told her.

"Never? Not even when camping?" But he just shakes his head at her question. She doesn't think he is going to say anything else but then he looks at her again and shrugs.

"Campin' when I was young was more out of necessity than for fun. Weren't a lot of extras at our house. Been huntin' since I was a boy and learned how to live off the land, how to track. Got lost only once. Was gone about 9 days." Beth isn't saying a word, just letting him talk, not having heard him speak so freely since they've arrived on the island. "Got poison ivy on my ass because I didn't know any better which leaves were which."

He looks at her like he expects her to laugh and maybe under different circumstances she would, but it's not a funny story. It's sad. He was a little boy lost with no one to find him. "Is that why you teach survival courses? So no one ever feels lost and alone again?"

He looks at her for a long minute, his hair hanging in his eyes and she has the strongest urge to reach out and smooth it back from his forehead so she can see the depth of emotion coming from his gaze; like that little boy is still lost in there somewhere waiting to be found.

Beth suspects there's a lot more to this man than meets the eye. She can feel it. Then finally he nods. "Guess that's part of it." He doesn't say anything else and Beth doesn't pry because it doesn't seem right. Without quite knowing how she knows it, she gets the feeling that he's never told anyone what he just told her.

She is grateful he is sharing something about himself and his story pulls at her heartstrings something awful. "Never had poison ivy. But I once got stung by twenty yellow jackets."

He lets out a low whistle and she nods at him. "Yeah it wasn't fun."

They don't say anything else and the night is growing dim around them. Pretty soon it will be time to turn in. They're going into the rainforest tomorrow to forage for berries and fruit to supplement their diet.

An hour later and they are in their shelter flat on their backs and Beth is having them record a dual message on the diary cam.

"It's the end of day 2 and we're still here." She says cheerfully and then has to bite back a yawn. It's been a long, hard day and she barely slept last night. She's hoping that she can get some sleep tonight, mosquitoes or no. They've built the fire up a bit to keep the smoke going as to deter the blood-sucking insects from hanging around their camp.

"Say goodnight, Daryl." Beth says into the camera before zooming in on his face, his eyes dark mysterious pools in the reflected image.

"Goodnight. Day 3 of Bjornak, we're comin' for ya." With that she shuts off the camera and they settle back, their satchels strapped across their middles.

Beth is humming before she stops herself. "Sorry." She mutters and closes her eyes again, trying to relax to fall asleep.

It's a couple of minutes and she thinks he's dropped off to sleep before finally he speaks again, his voice gruff as ever. "You could sing somethin'. Might be nice." He then adds "If ya want."

She turns to face him and their faces are close in the dark and she can barely make out his eyes but she sees the hesitance on his face all the same.

"Thought my singing annoyed you?" Beth is smiling when she says it so she knows she doesn't hold it against him. Not everyone likes singing, she reminds herself.

He shrugs. "Well, there ain't no jukebox out here, so." His voice trails off as if he expects her to refuse his request. But Beth has never turned down a request to sing before and she's not about to start now. Especially coming from him. She gets the feeling that he's not used to asking people for a lot of things and for some reason, that makes her sad for him.

Maybe he's right. Maybe singing is just what they both need right now. And so she does.

 _They hung a sign up in our town  
"If you live it up, you won't live it down"  
So she left Monte Rio, son  
Just like a bullet leaves a gun  
With her charcoal eyes and Monroe hips  
She went and took that California trip  
Oh, the moon was gold, her hair like wind  
Said, "don't look back, just come on, Jim"_

 _Oh, you got to hold on, hold on  
You gotta hold on  
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on_

* * *

 **I hope you guys liked it! That concludes Day 2 of the challenge and I can't believe how fast the chapters are coming to me. The title of this chapter is from Crown the Empire "Lead Me Out of the Dark". If you have been following me since the beginning, you'll know that this isn't the first time I've used this song and even have a fic prompt anthology of stories named after it.**

 **This song is near and dear to my heart and Crown the Empire is one of my favorite bands and I have actually met them three times in the past couple of years. They even call me "mom" because I always go with my girls, who got me interested in their music.**

 **This fic is absolutely going to be Still-esque and you'll probably recognize certain callbacks to that episode that remains my favorite of the entire series to date. So this fic is fun to write and I'm hella inspired. I'm already at work on the next chapter! Thank you for reading and please leave a review on your way out, xoxoxo**


	3. Chapter 3

**I cannot begin to thank everyone enough for all the wonderful reviews this fic has received. I am so happy that you guys are liking the story and are enjoying it despite not even having watched Naked and Afraid. Words simply cannot describe how excited I am every time this story gets a favorite or follow or comment or kudos. It just thrills me that everyone is enjoying it. Thank you so much for continuing to follow it and for reading my work. You're the best readers a girl could ask for.**

* * *

Day 3/ Bjornak

It's raining. It started sometime in the night and so far, their shelter hadn't leaked so they patted themselves on the back for weaving the roof thatching properly that they'd created from palm leaves they'd gathered from around the island. But the rain had brought with it a cooler air, so unlike the stifling humidity and heat that they'd dealt with on days 1 and 2 of the challenge.

"We're gettin' up for the day." Daryl speaks into his diary cam while Beth does whatever it is she does with her hair. He turns the camera around to face his partner. "The beauty queen is nearly done with her mornin' ritual." He doesn't know where he gets the pluck to say what he says but it's out of his mouth before he can stop it. He smiles at her though so she knows it's not like he's making fun of her. He's trying his best to be nicer.

"Stop." She says with a shy smile. There's a blush on her cheeks and he can't figure why it's there. Yeah, they're naked but it makes him feel some kind of way the smile she is sending him right now. Maybe it's because of what he said but she's smiling so he knows she isn't mad at him.

He turns the camera around to face him again. The crew will be here any minute, he figures, to record their daily activity. He wondered how they fared in their tents across the island and smirked to himself. He was fairly proud of the shelter he and Beth had constructed. They might not have had extravagant quarters but they stayed dry in the night and that counted for something in his book.

"We're going out in the rain forest today to see if we can find some fruit. The ocean will be choppy because of the rain so spear fishing is out." He tried not to think of how hungry he was. They were expending a lot of energy out here and the one snake and three fish they'd gotten was good, but they needed more if they wanted to thrive, and not just survive.

He shut the diary cam off and looked at his partner, thinking about how she couldn't afford to lose any weight out here and he vowed they were going to find something today even if it killed him.

"What?" She was looking at him and he realized he'd just been caught staring at her.

He shrugged. "Was just thinkin' we need to find something to eat today is all."

"I know. I'm already starvin' this morning. If I was at home, I'd be sitting down to a big plate of eggs and bacon with all the fixings." A small sigh slipped from her lips and he looked at her wondering where she would put all that food.

As if she had read his mind, she laughs. "I may look small, but I can eat." She says and then pats him on the foot. "Let's go. We'll head into the jungle and the crew can find _us_."

And with that, she slips out of their shelter and he follows behind, slipping his diary cam into his satchel before he goes.

A few minutes later they are deep in the rainforest and the rain is not quite as heavy here with the lush canopy of trees over their heads.

Beth leads the way since she was already out here before when she'd found the things necessary to get their fire started. They'd stoked it before they left camp to be certain it wouldn't go out while they were gone.

As they walk, she is humming a song and Daryl finds that he doesn't mind it at all and he almost asks her to sing again like he did last night but in the clear light of day, his request seems stupid in his mind. He doesn't figure he has any right to ask her to sing after how he treated her the past couple of days. But he had last night and he'd been rather surprised when she had obliged him and had opened her mouth to sing.

It was unlike anything Daryl had ever heard, Beth singing and he wondered why the girl was stuck here in the jungle with him, when, to his ears, it sounded like she belonged up on a stage somewhere. He didn't quite know how to tell her he was sorry for what he'd said the other day.

"What song is that?" The question came so easily and he wondered what it was about this girl that had him speaking his mind so easily. He'd never been the type to talk a lot but there was something about her that made it easier somehow. It was baffling to say the least.

Before he had a chance to ponder on it further she answered him. "It's a song I wrote actually." She says and then turns to smile at him softly.

"You write songs?" He wonders if there isn't anything she can't do and then he remembers that he doesn't even know what she does for a living. Maybe she is a rock star already and he just doesn't know it. He could actually picture it, her in some tight leather outfit belting out tunes under a spotlight in front of thousands.

"For myself really." She laughs then and she doesn't say anything else and he doesn't ask further.

But then she starts singing again as they walk. Softly at first and then a bit louder.

I don't want you anymore  
Summers gone and now I'm sure  
The box behind my bed un-saved  
I took out with the trash today  
Oh the truth is I've met someone new  
The truth is you probably have too  
The truth is I can't stand your face  
When I think of all the love we made

Oh we took a walk we took a walk  
Out by the Hudson River  
The humid breeze your need to please  
It made my shoulders shiver  
You asked me baby girl how long until my heart recovers  
I'm sure the answers never  
You're a top back shelf out-of-date too late expired lover

Beth stopped singing and looked at him, her face fired up in a blush. "It's a break-up song." She says and shrugs.

Daryl doesn't say anything to that. She gets busy cutting some of the brush away from a path they want to take and he thinks about the song and the words. It seemed like someone had really hurt her and he couldn't imagine who would want to treat her badly.

She was just so nice, probably one of the nicest people he'd met in a long time. And she was beautiful. She can have any guy she wants. _Not you, baby brother. She's way out of your league._ Daryl fought the urge to mutter shut the fuck up to his brother who always seemed to be invading his thoughts.

Especially since he'd been here and not for the first time, Daryl thought of all the choice words he had for Merle when he got back.

"Sounds like it was a bad break-up." Daryl says and he doesn't know why he's asked her. It is certainly none of his business and it's on his lips to say so but then she turns and she smiles a little wanly at him.

"It was. He was a jerk though. We met in high school and we went to separate schools for four years and then-." She breaks off for a minute and then continues. "Well, we got back together and I realized how much we'd changed. He cheated on me." She says finally and then she's quiet.

"I'm sorry. You deserve better 'an that." Daryl says, because it's true. Beth is so kind and sweet and she seems like she'd be a really good girlfriend. Whatever guy had cheated on her needed his ass kicked plain and simple. And why Daryl even thinks that, he can't say why. He wouldn't know the first thing about what would make a good girlfriend, but by looking at Beth, he just knows somehow that she would be good at relationships and all that heart and flowers shit.

"Thanks." She says softly and he looks at her and their eyes meet and there's that feeling in the pit of his stomach again. It's happened before when she looks at him. Her eyes are the bluest blue he's ever seen and it reminds him of a warm spring Texas morning when the dust has burned off the atmosphere and it's all sunshine and blue skies. He realizes he's still staring, but he's unable to tear his gaze away from hers.

Her cheeks are fired up in that same blush and he wonders what puts it there. What makes her blush so prettily every five minutes?

They hear a crackle in the brush around them and they both turn towards the sound. His first thought is that a puma is nearby, but the noise stops and he motions to her that they should check it out. He puts a finger to his lips and she seems to understand his intention for her to be quiet on her feet. They are barefoot so that helps a lot in that regard.

They are on a game trail and he recognizes the tracks of small game and he wishes he'd already made a bow and arrow so he could track and hunt whatever it was.

As they pick their way carefully through the jungle, they don't see any sign of big game, like the fierce puma, but in the clearing they've just stepped into, they can see a big bunch of bananas has fallen from a tree to the ground. But as they approach it; it's clear that it's been up there too long and it's covered in tiny worm like creatures. Whatever had been edible on the bunch before is long gone.

He surmises that must have been the sound they heard. He looks back at Beth and he can't help it. He's smiling at her and she's smiling at him. For there's more. They've found a banana tree and in stepping under it they look up and he lets out a low whistle.

"That's a lot of bananas, Daryl." She beams up at him that thousand watt smile of hers and for a minute he can't think of anything but how no one has ever smiled at him like this before. He tells himself that she probably smiles at everyone like this and it's nothing special.

It doesn't mean anything and he doesn't even _want_ it to mean anything. That's what he tells himself anyway.

He looks at the banana tree and knows he can't climb it but the one right next to it he can see that if he can scale it, he can reach about three bunches of the bananas to cut from the branches overhanging. The only obstacle Daryl can see is that the tree has some rough looking bark and he doesn't relish the idea of climbing a tree completely naked.

"It looks like I can climb up the tree next to it. I'll carry the machete with me in my satchel and cut them down from up there."

"Are you sure?" Beth is asking him and he's not. He's not sure at all. But he'd meant what he said. They were getting food today if it killed him. So he glances at the tree and back to her again and nods.

"I think it'll be alright." He glances down and looks back up and smirks. "It might not be a comfortable climb but I think I can manage." He turns to the tree before a final glance at his partner, but then she's calling him back.

"Wait." He turns to look at her and she's removing her satchel from her body, the strap sliding over her head followed by the rest of it as she's left bare. There it goes again; that blush firing up her cheeks and his eyes rake over her once like he can't help himself. He doesn't mean to. He really doesn't, but she's so pretty standing there with her hair plaited down over one shoulder and nothing else but her smile.

"Take mine." She is saying and he drags his eyes back up to hers and he can see the mirth there in her eyes. She knows he was staring. "It'll give you a little more protection."

Now it's his turn for his cheeks to fire up red and he can feel the burn all the way to the tips of his ears as she hands him the bag and the implication that she is giving it to him to cover his Johnson so it doesn't get injured on the climb. It's probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for him and he can't think of anything to say. Every word that comes to mind dies before it reaches his lips and he thinks that's okay.

"Thanks." He finally settles on that one simple word as he settles her satchel over his body, trying not to think about how warm it is from where's she's just taken it off. The thought of it is almost too much for him. Suddenly Daryl is extremely glad he has the extra satchel to hide his body's response to wearing something that has so recently been against her soft skin.

It's going to be a long climb.

* * *

Beth can't quite believe she's just done what she's done and she tries not to think about it too much, standing there completely nude. The cameramen had found them and they were a constant presence but even though it had only been a couple of days, they seemed to blend into the background at times and she almost forgot they were there. Still, she had to wonder what the exchange that had just happened with her and Daryl had looked like to their eyes.

 _Calm down, Beth_ , she chided herself. Nothing was happening here. She was on a challenge and she was not here for _that_ , but Heavens he made her blood heat up in a way that she hadn't felt in a very long time.

What she'd told Daryl had been true. She'd met Aiden in high school and they'd dated for three years before they'd gone off to college and taking a break from one another. Then, they'd both moved to New York where she was going to medical school and he was going to law school and they'd gotten back together.

In retrospect, she knows now that they'd moved way too fast. They'd moved in together within a month and everything had gone great for awhile.

Then she started looking for a house for them to rent in the suburbs. And he'd gotten weird about it, stating that he'd rather they stay in the city. Which was weird to her since they'd both come from the same small town in Georgia. She knew who Aiden Monroe was and though he hadn't grown up on a farm like her, she couldn't imagine him wanting to spend the rest of his life in the city.

She didn't want to spend hers there. But she'd resigned herself to it until one afternoon when she'd gotten out of school early and she'd come home to Aiden and some blond kissing in their living room.

She had broken it off immediately and never looked back. What she'd had with Aiden wasn't even real it turned out and she wasn't even sad about it anymore.

Aiden had been a different part of her life in some ways. Kind of like being out here was a different part of her life.

She looked at her partner now. She hadn't decided what it was exactly, but there was something about Daryl Dixon that was very intriguing to her and it was almost like she couldn't help herself around him.

As he climbed, she watched for any dangers, particularly any snakes that might be nearby. Pit vipers hung out in the trees during the day to escape the heat and they could be lurking anywhere. Daryl was doing rather well on the climb. He's tucked his satchel between his legs and hers is covering where his can't and he reaches the first bunch in a couple of minutes, hacking away at the branch that holds it hostage.

It falls to the ground with a soft thud and rustle of leaves and Beth notices it sounds identical to the sound they'd heard before that had led them here. She stays clear of the area where the bananas have fallen. The last thing they need is her getting hit in the head and having to call the medic.

She has plenty to look at while Daryl is cutting the bananas down, but she can't help but watch his arms and shoulders and takes note of how the muscles move as he makes the chopping motion. If he was wearing clothes, she just imagine how the seams would be straining against the force of his arms.

She could only imagine what it would feel like to have his arms wrapped around her. She shakes that thought from her head immediately because that is simply _not_ going to happen.

Within minutes, Daryl has cut down three bunches of bananas and Beth wonders what in the world they are going to do with so many of them.

He's back down and standing in front of her in a few more minutes and she holds up her hand and he slaps it in a high five. It's now a familiar thing for them, every time they have a small victory like this.

Actually, Beth would count this as a major victory.

He hands her back her satchel wordlessly and she slips it back over her shoulders to rest in front of her like it had before. He didn't say anything else, but she was grateful for the cover again just the same.

"We'll have to remember where this tree is. We can come back and get the leaves to wrap the fish in next time you catch some."

Daryl looks at her and the corners of his eyes turn up in a smile and she's pleased because he seems to be doing that more and more. For some reason, Beth gets the impression that he doesn't have a lot to smile about in his life and she's hoping over the course of the next couple of weeks, she can change that somehow. It makes her happy that it seems to already be working and as they walk back she chatters on about the uses of bananas.

"It's not just the leaves that are useful. You can use the stem here as well and strip the fibers down and cook them to eat. They're really healthy and we could use the extra calories." She gestures to the base of the banana bunch she is carrying. Daryl is carrying the other two while she carries their machete and they carefully retrace their steps through the jungle back to camp.

"How the hell you know so much about bananas, Greene?" He says and she just laughs.

"I had to take Botany in school and I guess I studied a little bit harder because I liked the subject. Sorry for nerding out like that." She says with a shy smile and he just shrugs.

"It's okay. It's interestin'." And he doesn't say anything else. She still hasn't told him she's a medical student and she doesn't know why she's holding back that information except that she fears that it will somehow make her sound elite or a snob and that's so not Beth and never had been. She doesn't want Daryl to think of her that way.

Deciding to go to medical school had not been a spur of the moment decision but as she was signing up to take veterinary classes, she realized that while working with animals was an admirable profession and it was what her father had made his living at for many years, it was not for her.

She knew her calling was to help people and once she'd turned away from veterinary school and set her sights on med school she had felt a weight lift from her shoulders.

When she'd sat her Daddy down to tell him, she had worried that he'd be disappointed but he had just smiled in that Hershel Greene way and patted her leg and said. "I'm glad you finally figured it out Doodle Bug." He'd used her lifelong nickname he'd penned for her when she was small. He'd gone on to explain he'd known that she was meant for a bigger life than the farm and the animals she'd always helped him care for.

She knew she'd always have a soft place in her heart for animals and still helped her Daddy out on the farm when she was there. But she was so busy with medical school she didn't have much time for that anymore. As it was, she barely had the month off to do this challenge before school started back and she started a grueling rotation of clinicals.

They finally reached camp again and Daryl built the fire up while Beth set about to roast a couple of the bananas over an open fire, wrapping the bananas in a couple of the leaves she'd brought with her. She'd brought several because she knew they'd be good for thatching and any number of other uses. She had thought about making a blanket for her and Daryl to sleep under to keep the mosquitoes off of them even more. She would see about gathering more after they ate. She was starving after that long hike and she knew Daryl had to feel the same.

The bananas were delicious after roasting for a while over the open flames and Beth thought she had never tasted anything more delectable in her entire life. Still, she couldn't help but think how good these bananas would be mashed up in a bowl with flour and milk, pancake batter sizzling on the griddle followed by hot thick maple syrup poured over a generous pat of butter.

Swallowing her bite, she took a sip of water from the coconut shell and then passed it to Daryl so he could do the same. It was so peaceful here, just them sitting at the fire and eating their bananas like they didn't have a care in the world.

Daryl brushed at his leg and she noticed and moved her leg back from his, worried that there was a scorpion. "What is it? Insects?"

She looked about for fire ants as well as they could be a risk to them. Sometimes you could be sitting on an ant hill and not even know it until you were covered in hundreds of ants biting you. It had never happened to Beth but she'd seen it happen on the show before and she didn't plan on it happening to her. Not to Daryl either. He was her partner and it was her responsibility to look out for him.

"Nah, it's just itchy a bit. Those mosquitoes must have finally gotten to me." He said gruffly and she nodded as they both went back to their feast of bananas.

* * *

It wasn't mosquitoes and by that night it was evident what had happened. Daryl had climbed the dreaded Chin-Chin tree. He hadn't been paying any attention to what kind of tree he was climbing and neither had Beth. He blamed himself though. He had looked it up before he came. Some kind of warning bell should have went off in his head when he approached the tree, but it didn't. Instead, the only thing that had been on his mind was how Beth's body had looked as she'd slipped that satchel over her head.

So he had no one to blame right now for the intensely burning and itchy rash he had covering his inner thighs from his upper thigh to right around his knees and on his hands and arms. Thankfully his pelvic region and chest had been mostly spared though he wasn't sure how.

Beth had rushed the satchels down to the ocean as soon as they realized what had happened, to rinse out any residual sap that might be on them, and he was now waiting for her to come back from her run out there. He hoped she was careful trekking back through the jungle to camp and was conscious of where there could be predators lurking nearby as it was nearing dark. They hadn't seen any snakes that day, it had been so wet and dreary and as such, they'd not seen any game on the game trail either.

So their dinner had consisted of the same thing their lunch had: bananas. Beth had also cooked up some of the banana stems and the fiber had broken down to an almost spaghetti like substance and it hadn't been terrible when he'd eaten it.

Now, he couldn't think about eating though. The burning on his legs and his arms was getting worse by the minute and he hoped Beth was able to bring back some water. He was also feeling nauseated though he wasn't sure why.

"I'm back." She calls from outside the shelter and then there she is, her arms filled with banana leaves. "This is for later. But I brought some water in this." She holds up a long piece of bamboo that she's corked on one end with some of the plant fiber from the banana stem.

Daryl sits up as she pours some of the water out of the bamboo into a coconut shell. "Pour this over it. The saltwater should help neutralize the reaction a little bit. It'll take away some of the inflammatory response. Tomorrow morning, we'll get you down to the ocean and you can soak in it." They knew better than to go at night. It was too dark to traverse this island in the dark and they'd never find their way back to camp before nightfall.

"I'm so sorry, Daryl. I should have been looking out for that tree. I knew what it looked like." Beth is saying and the look on her face is so drawn, the creases in her forehead don't belong there.

He moves his hand over to hers where it's fiddling with the mat they're sitting on. "It ain't your fault, Beth. I knew what it looked like too. I wasn't paying any attention." He didn't say why he hadn't paid attention. He didn't need to her to know that he'd been so distracted by her, everything about her really, that the whole forest could have collapsed around them and he wasn't sure he would have noticed. It bothered him. It bothered him a lot. He needed to be more careful. He was _going_ to be more careful from now on.

But he couldn't worry about that right now. Right now, it felt like flames were shooting down his legs from the rash from that stupid tree sap. He could only be thankful that it hadn't spread to his groin because that would be pretty uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Let me see." Beth says. He just stares at her. Surely she doesn't mean for him to spread his legs so she can look at the burns. He is fine and can take care of himself and he opens his mouth to tell her just that when he feels her fingers squeeze his ankle slightly.

It's so stark, that light touch of her soft skin on his, so rough and worn, that it nearly has him losing his breath and not because of the pain he's in.

His eyes fly to hers but there is nothing but warmth coming back from Beth's eyes.

"I need to tell you something." She says and she is so serious. He can't imagine what has put that look on her face.

"I'm a third year medical student. I don't know why I didn't tell you before. I didn't want you to think of me differently I guess. I don't know. It sounds stupid when I say it out loud. I should have told you. It's stupid." She says again quietly. It's the last thing he expected her to say and at the same time, it fits her very well. A doctor. Well almost.

"No Beth, it's not stupid." He puts his hand on top of hers where it's still resting on his ankle. God her hands are so soft.

"I just want to see how bad it is. Chemical burns can form from that sap and I want to make sure if we need to call the medic or not. But I can be your medic for now. Everything is covered that needs to be Daryl and honest I've seen what you have before."

Her face turns beet red then as she stutters. "I meant, I've seen _other patients_ before."

And he has the sudden urge to laugh. "Well, girl, you have seen what I have before." And then she laughs too.

It's weird, almost weirder in a way, talking about their nakedness and in a way, it's kind of freeing. Something in him relaxes then and he shifts so his legs are more apart, careful to keep his satchel covering his junk and watches her as she checks out the rash on his legs.

There is a different look that comes across her face. She has a very studious look on her face and her eyes flash a different kind of brightness and he wonders what's going on in that pretty head of hers. The thought is out before he can stop it. She's pretty. There is nothing wrong with admitting that. Trying to pretend like Beth isn't beautiful is kind of like denying the sky is blue. The proof is right there. Then he's wondering why in the hell he is thinking so much about the sky with this girl around.

"I think the saltwater will help some but it would make me feel better if you had a medic look at it." Beth sits back and looks at him. It's a challenge she's issued. He doesn't need a medic. So he shakes his head.

"Don't want a medic." Then he adds. "What would you do if you had supplies here?" He asks her because he genuinely wants to know.

"I'd give you a shot of steroids and an antihistamine to stop the response your body is creating to the toxins."

He raises his eyebrows at her quick answer. He knew she was smart. He just didn't know she was that smart and there's that blush firing up her cheeks red again. He nods. "I think I'll be alright. As you said, you can be my medic. If we need them, we can call them. But for now, I got you."

He isn't sure he likes how that phrase sounds coming out of his mouth but something about it makes Beth smile, so maybe it's okay after all.

Still, he knows it's going to be a long night. Saltwater bath or no, his legs are still burning like hellfire and the mosquitoes are biting something awful and it seems his luck had run out. Somehow once the sap had taken over his body, it is like the mosquitoes want a piece of the action too.

Beth had spent the past hour weaving a blanket for them to sleep under from the banana leaves and palm fronds she'd collected that day and they were now settling down for sleep. Hopefully it would come. Until then, he tried not to scratch at the rash so it wouldn't spread. Yeah, it was going to be a long night for sure.

* * *

3:00 a.m.

When Daryl wakes up with a fever in the middle of the night, it's clear his body is having a very bad reaction to the Chin-Chin poisoning. Beth is the first to wake as she feels heat emanating from under their leaf blanket and realizes it's Daryl and he's moaning slightly in his sleep. She feels his forehead to confirm and that's when the worry sets in.

She has no trouble this time in convincing Daryl to let her look at his legs. He's thrown the satchel off of himself in the night and Beth goes into clinical mode. Beth stares down at what she is seeing and frowns. There are chemical burns forming on his legs and she knows that any primitive treatment she can offer him out here is not good enough. They are going to have to call the medic.

But she knows Daryl doesn't want that. She wrestles with the decision for a long time, torn between what her medical training wants her to do and what she knows her partner want. An hour later, after she's tried sponging his body with a rudimentary cloth made from a banana leaf and applying swaths of cool water, it seems Daryl's fever is climbing instead of receding; she has to make the call.

Her medical mind trumps any misgivings Daryl might have about receiving medical attention. He is getting it whether he wants it or not because as a medical professional, in her opinion, he highly needs it. And fast.

She gets the emergency walkie-talkie from the corner of the shelter and speaks clearly into the receiver. "Medic! We need a medic!"

She crouches back down next to Daryl in their shelter and grabs hold of his hand, which is also burning hot with fever. "Don't worry Daryl. I got you." She whispers close to his ear.

He doesn't say anything and she doesn't really expect him to. So she just sits and holds his hand and waits for the medic to arrive, praying that it doesn't take them long.

* * *

 **Hi guys! Hope you liked that chapter. I have been planning that one since the beginning so I couldn't wait to get it written. The next chapter will deal a little more with Daryl's burns and I hope I'm not killing y'all too much with the UST. Lol But there will be more next chapter.**

 **Of note, the song I used in this chapter is Expired Love by Emily Kinney and I thought it was appropriate to the storyline. Emily's songs never fail to bring a smile to my face. If you ever have a chance to hear her live, do it! She is amazing.**

 **Thanks again for reading and please leave me a review on your way out, xoxoxo**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi everyone! I thought I'd give a brief synopsis of the show and its rules so you know what's normal and what isn't and what normally happens in cases like what is going on right now with Daryl and Beth. Sometimes when things like this happen, a medic has to be called in. Injuries and illnesses happen frequently out in the wild so it's not uncommon. They are not penalized for having to seek medical treatment, per se but they are judged on how well they handle the crisis.**

 **The contestants of the show are given a PSR, a primitive survival rating before the 21 days and then reassessed after the 21 day challenge and given a new score. This could affect Daryl's overall score, but if he bounces back, it could actually boost it instead of make it lower. It all depends on his attitude and resolve and will to get through it.**

 **Cameramen are with them all day and they keep diary cams on them for other times when the cameramen are busy elsewhere or at nighttime when every single member of the crew leaves the contestants on their own.**

 **I have seen shows where they are left to their own devices across miles and some have been separated from crew by wild rapids of a river or worse conditions. It's very much life and death out there.**

 **Hope that clears some things up! Enjoy the next chapter xoxoxo**

* * *

Chapter 4

It's hot. He can't believe how hot it is. He's in the jungle and he's with Beth but he doesn't remember it being so hot. He wonders if Beth is as hot as he is. His mouth is dry and he opens it to ask if she wants to go down to the water to cool off. It's night he thinks, but maybe it'll be okay. But then a hand is pressing him back.

Her hand is so cold against him and he wonders if she's already gone to the water without him. But she wouldn't go without him. She'd take him with her, he thinks. They are partners; they have to stick together.

"Shh, Daryl. Rest. They're coming." Who is coming? He wants to ask her but he can't. He can't get his mouth to open. All he wants is water.

She seems to understand this because then a hard object is pressed to his lips and he greedily gulps down every bit of water she sluices into his mouth and he's so grateful to her. She's pretty much the only thing keeping him alive at this point, though he isn't sure why he knows this or how. He just knows he's on fire and he can't bring himself to open his eyes. They burn too and he thinks of Merle and how he would make fun of him if he knew all the things he was thinking right now.

How soft and cool Beth's hands feel on his skin as they wait. They're waiting for something. Someone is coming. He opens his mouth to ask her again but the words won't come and finally he's just so tired. His eyes burn and he's just going to go to sleep for a little bit. When he wakes up, it will be cooler and they can go down to the water.

* * *

Beth mops at Daryl's brow with her own hands now, wishing more than anything she had all the tools at her disposal that she needed to help him. It was almost torture thinking about all the things she could do for him if she had the proper resources, but all she had was a bamboo shoot full of tepid seawater and her hands that tried to soothe him into a restful position. They needed to bring his fever down. He was going to get dehydrated. She mentally tallied up the water they'd had the day before and knew he was dangerously close to that point.

She feared for his safety, yes. That was her primary concern, but followed by that thought was the fact that if he required medical treatment in a hospital, he would be forced to tap out and she would have to face the challenge alone for the next 17 odd days. She didn't know if she could do it. She was strong, but this place was hell on earth.

Snake island with a side of poison trees. _This was what she signed up for_ , she kept telling herself. That was hard to wrestle with though, when her partner was burning up with fever as his body fought to rid the toxins inside of him.

Finally, blessedly, she heard unmistakable rustling in the brush as the medical team found them. The area was suddenly flooded with bright effusive lights that they'd brought in to assist the medical team. Beth stepped back as two large men picked Daryl up and put him on a stretcher that they had positioned right outside their shelter.

The team worked to triage him and Beth stood back, unsure of what her role in this needed to be. It was taking everything she had to not step in and help out.

"Beth. Beth." His voice called from the stretcher, his lips dry and his voice even gruffer than normal. Beth rushed forward, careful not to get in anyone's way but crouched down at the top of the stretcher and smoothed his hair back from his brow.

"I'm right here Daryl." He seemed to settle at the sound of her voice and everything seemed to tunnel down for her at that point.

They took his temperature which was hovering at 103.5 and she felt a bit better knowing that it was not as high as she had feared. The medic agreed that his body seemed to be having a reaction to the tree sap. They recommended he get treatment in the tent back at their headquarters across the island where they had better equipment and a generator. They also had fans that would aid in bringing his body temperature down in a safe manner.

"Will he have to tap out." Beth asked the director who was standing across from the medic, making notes on her clipboard.

She looked down at Beth and their eyes met and Beth could tell that the woman was genuinely concerned. "It'll be up to Daryl. His condition is serious but stable. If he stabilizes further, the medic may release him but it's up to his body to fight this and up to him if he decides he wants to stay. It won't be easy. It takes several days for the poison to work its way out of the system." She was a straight shooter and for that, Beth was grateful.

"Can I go with him?" She asked but the director was shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, Beth. You have to stay here. It's against the rules."

She nodded as they prepared to leave, trying not to cry.

She went back to Daryl's side and his eyes were open. "You're gonna be just fine Daryl Dixon. You're gonna be the last man standing in this challenge." She says with a brave smile.

He nods at her and he tries to open his mouth to speak but she can tell he's having a hard time. He's just too sick. "Shh, don't try to talk. You just go get better and prove me right."

As the two men pick up the stretcher to carry Daryl through the jungle, Beth does something that she hasn't done in a long time. She prays.

* * *

It's been hours she is guessing since Daryl has been gone and she's tried to stay busy around camp. She'd tidied up the shelter, laying the blanket over the bed and clearing out any stray leaves and adds them to the fire that she then stokes up to be certain that it won't go out. She then busies herself with chopping more wood for the fire, lining up the logs in a pyramid.

When that's done, she sits down and has a meal of bananas and works on making rope from some of the stalks of the banana leaves that she'd gathered and carried back. If she can, she is going to try to make a dead-fall trap. It's better than sitting around and doing nothing.

She works at the knots and takes a small sturdy branch and ties the rope she's fashioned from the stems onto the end of it. Feeling relatively satisfied that this will be enough to prop up any rock she might find, she goes into the jungle to find the game trails that she and Daryl had crossed the day before. She is careful to avoid the area where she knows the Chin Chin tree is and she's now ever alert of its presence or any others just like it, for that matter.

She is almost on constant vigil at this point as she walks, watching for the ever present danger of snakes and she wishes for the millionth time she had taken the time to learn how to make primitive shoes before she'd come out here. She had depended on her tough Georgia heels to get her by out here but it simply wasn't enough for this terrain. She didn't think a thousand pedicures when she went back home would return her feet to their natural state. They ached something awful but still she plodded on, carefully stepping through the jungle.

Finding the first game trail was easy and she looked around immediately to see if she could find a large boulder to put it under.

She tries not to think about Daryl right now and just hopes that they are doing everything they can to help him. Perhaps it's even foolish for her to be making plans for him to come back. Maybe the call had already been made. For all she knew, he could be halfway to some hospital right now and she'd never see him again.

Any minute now, someone could be coming back to tell her he'd been withdrawn from the challenge and she'd be left to finish the 21 day challenge on her own.

She had to fight back tears at the thought. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands, hoping to god she didn't have anything on her that would cause any further misery than what they were currently in. She was just tired, she told herself. It had been a long night and she hadn't gotten any sleep and this day was stretching on to infinity with no one here with her.

She didn't know if she could survive out here alone with no one to talk to and nothing to do. It had honestly only crossed her mind a couple of times but she had always envisioned her partner to be something of Herculean strength; someone exactly like Daryl to be honest.

He just had to pull through. He had to or she didn't know what she was going to do. She could finish the challenge; but suddenly after everything, she wasn't sure she even wanted to. And that just made her feel worse. She wasn't really sure how this day was going to end, but she was pretty sure it was going to end in tears.

She fished out her diary cam for the first time since Daryl left and spoke into the camera, knowing she looked like absolute hell but that was okay because that's exactly how she felt.

"I'm exhausted. I hope Daryl is doing okay and he's getting better. I really hope that he doesn't have to tap out of the challenge. Obviously, he needs to be healthy enough to stay. Things out here are bad enough when you're in perfect health.

We made a stupid mistake with the Chin Chin tree. One we won't make again. I just hope he gets another chance to prove himself.

I don't want to be out here alone." She fights back tears again and then feeling just as raw and vulnerable she just lets it all out. "I don't think I can do this on my own. I mean, I can try. That's what I came for but I also expected that my partner would be able to help me through. And I can help Daryl. If he's strong enough to stay."

She finishes setting the dead-fall trap, lining the branch up with the rock and baiting it with a bit of banana she'd brought with her. Hopefully it will attract some game and she'll be able to capture it.

Suddenly Beth knows exactly how she is going to fill the rest of her day and she turns off the camera, dries her tears and sets off to do just that. If he comes back, this could help him a lot.

Feeling her hope surge and her resolve strengthen, she sets out from camp towards the beach.

* * *

He was on fire. That was what he was convinced of. Maybe he'd died and gone to hell. He'd thought that might happen on more than one occasion. He was a Dixon after all and it wasn't like Dixons ended up at the pearly gates up top.

Especially his pops. This reminded him of one of those times that his pops had beaten him with his belt. His back had been raw and bloody and burned like hellfire, just like this. Except this was on his legs and his arms. And his pops might be a mean drunk but he hit his target every time. And for whatever reason, his back was his pops favorite target in the world when he got to swinging that leather strop around.

No this was a different kind of burning and he felt like he was burning from the inside too and he wondered again where Beth had gotten to. She would want to go down to cool off in the ocean. It was dark so it must be night.

He looked around him and couldn't see anything. It was then that he realized his eyes were closed. "Water."

"There he is." A voice says and he forces his eyes open. The air hits his eyes and it feels hot and gritty like he has been sandblasted in the face. Why is everything so fucking hot?

"Good to see you back with us Daryl. I'm Dr. Cloyd." He nodded at the petite blonde woman adjusting a blood pressure cuff over his arm. What was she talking about? Where the fuck did he go? He'd been right here.

But as he looks around he's not at the shelter anymore. The last thing he remembered was going to sleep. But now he was in a tent that was lit up with bright overhead lights and he was lying back on a cot and had about six people milling about getting this and that. But where was Beth?

"Beth." He makes a move to sit up and he's immediately blocked by two people who make him lie back. And he can't decide if he wants to punch them or be grateful because as he moves he suddenly feels very nauseous like he might throw up.

"She is back at your camp." What the fuck? Why isn't she here with him? He is so confused and he tries to sit up again only to be attacked by another wave of nausea. This needed to stop. He had shit to do. They had to get the shelter firmed up. They were going to go foraging. Or was that yesterday?

"Daryl do you remember what happened with the burns on your arms and legs?" Dr. Cloyd was saying and then it all came back to him.

Him and Beth finding the banana tree and then him very stupidly climbing the worst damn tree on the whole cursed island. He nodded at the doctor. He remembered all right. He had some very painful reminders.

"I've given you a steroid shot combined with an antihistamine to combat the response your body is having." He remembered Beth telling him that was what she was going to give him if she was his doctor and he felt proud all the sudden that she would have been able to take care of him had she been able to.

He suddenly needed to get back to her. He guessed she had been the one to call for the medic and he couldn't fault her for that.

"What happens now?" His voice was hoarse and his throat felt like raw hamburger meat.

Someone handed him a bottle of water and it was ice cold and he wanted to gulp the whole thing down at once it tasted so good, but his stomach was still feeling pretty iffy so he decided on small sips as the doctor spoke.

"You get to decide that. Your body is having a reaction to the sap. It will take a few days to work out of your system. People normally go to the hospital for treatment, but it's up to you."

Daryl just shook his head at that notion. No way in hell was he going to a hospital.

She continued. "That would mean tapping out of the challenge, of course. You're welcome to have time to think it over. I'm going to go tell the director my recommendations." She patted his leg and stood up and went over to the other side of the large tent to converse with the director who nodded in his direction as the doctor approached her.

He wished Beth was here. He'd feel better if he could talk this whole thing through with her. He respected her opinion and he wanted to know what she thought. He had seen other contestants go through this challenge and he knew when one needed medical attention their partner had to stay behind at camp. It was just the rules.

Still, he was a grown man and he could make his own decisions. He thought of what he would do if Beth weren't here and his decision was the same. He didn't want to leave. He wondered if they'd make him though.

He had signed his name on a dotted line waiving them of all responsibility so it was on him if he wanted to stay out here and die, right?

He wondered if the fever had gone to his head that he wanted to try to stick it out here in this godforsaken place but he did. He wanted to stay. He just hoped that the decision wouldn't be taken out of his hands.

As he looked at the director nodding her head worriedly along with what the doctor was saying, his heart sank to his feet. They were going to kick him out and he wasn't going to ever see Beth Greene again. And he just didn't know what to think about that.

* * *

Beth walked back into camp just as it was getting dark. It would be full on dark soon and she was equal parts relieved and worried that they hadn't come back to tell her anything yet.

It could mean that Daryl was far more serious than she imagined and they had to take him off the island to get him immediate help and no one had been able to come and tell her yet or they were trying to do what they could in their setup across the island. But it had been so long, it was hard not to let her imagination get the best of her.

Her heart was heavy as she took her strap over her shoulder and put it right outside the shelter and stoked the fire.

It was cooler tonight than it had been the night before and she wondered how she was going to keep warm tonight. It was going to be colder in the shelter without Daryl in it. She felt so alone and she wished someone would just please come and tell her what was going on.

An hour later, while she was roasting more bananas for something quick to eat, she heard something rustling in the brush. The crew had already left for the night and she still had no word about Daryl and she'd resigned herself to going to bed and hoping that someone would bring her news of him in the morning.

But now, her heart gripped with fear as she realized whatever was out there could be a predator. A puma maybe. She reached for the machete, steeling herself for defense if necessary. But the footsteps sounded human.

It was one of the crew and her heart sank all the way to her feet and what it must mean. Daryl was gone. She really wanted to cry.

But then the man stepped into the clearing and she saw someone was trudging in behind him. He looked a bit tired but considerably better since the last time she'd seen him in the middle of the night. That was so long ago.

Her heart leapt back into her chest. He was here. Still maybe he'd come to tell her himself. She'd seen that happen several times when a partner tapped out of the challenge. Daryl would do that, she realized. He would want to come and tell her himself no matter how sick he was.

She walked up to him and for once she didn't go with her instincts and throw her arms around him like she wanted to. Something was holding her back and she wasn't quite sure what it was but she waited for him to speak. "Are you feeling better?"

"I don't feel great. They gave me exactly what you said they would. Said I'd feel better in a few days." He doesn't say anything and Beth thinks she is going to die of suspense.

"So you're leaving?" Beth dares to whisper it and she barely recognizes the emotion in her voice. It's not the end of the world if he leaves, she reminds herself.

"I'm staying." Daryl says and she can't help it, she bursts into a smile and throws her arms around his neck.

At first he stands there and she doesn't think he's going to hug her back. He probably feels terrible and here she is hanging all over him. She goes to pull herself back. "I'm sorry."

But then his arms come up to her waist and she's pressed against him and he's warm but not too hot and he's here. He's staying.

"You ain't got nothin' to be sorry for." He says into her hair and then pulls back to look at her and it's then that she becomes hyperaware of their nudity and their proximity to one another and how she'd had pressed every bit of herself to every bit of him in her exuberance over him staying on the island. Her face flushes as her fingers fly to her hair to adjust her ponytail.

"We just need to be more careful is all. Me especially." He says as he finally steps away, the tips of his ears red. As if he too has suddenly realized how close they are. But she can't think about that just now. She is just so happy he is here that she smiles at him and as she looks back at him she is absolutely stunned. He smiles right back.

Suddenly, Beth knows that they can make it. They have survived this much and they can survive the rest of the challenge too. _Together_.

* * *

 **I hope that I was able to convey here how Daryl is having to learn that he can depend on someone at the same time that Beth is learning that she can be independent and can make it on her own. This chapter took me a bit longer than I thought I would because I have a lot going on in real life right now. I am AGAIN getting ready to move my entire household, this time to another county within our state. It's not too far, but just far enough to make certain that this happens in a somewhat organized fashion, otherwise I might lose my mind.**

 **I am still planning on updating this story and my others as much as possible, because my writing is what's keeping me sane during this transition. Lol**


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